Discovering what captivates people is a well-researched science. We took the key triggers that Ben Parr outlines in Captivology: The Science of Capturing People’s Attention and applied them to print.

1. Automaticity

Our brains are constantly looking for sensory cues to automatically alert us to anything we should be taking note of, including bright colours and tactile sensations out of the ordinary. Print can carry an experience for all five of our senses, making it far more effective than other media.

Click here to read how the Crimestoppers Trust UK collaborated with a Dutch design agency to create cards infused with the scent of cannabis that resulted in more arrests for drug crimes.

2. Framing

Our world view, or frame, is constructed from the total of our experiences, which we use to filter the enormous amount of stimuli in our environment. Repetition informs this process, which is why the multi-platform approach works best for marketing. As print is proven to work better than other media, it's the starting point for any multi-channel campaign.

Click here to discover how a car industry marketing campaign had a 50% lift on previous results when their desktop campaign was layered with print.

3. Disruption

Want to grab the attention of the digital generations? Disrupt their regular habits by sending them direct mail.Click here to read some stats on how Millennials are responding to direct mail.

4. Reward

Who doesn't like to be rewarded? The rewards we can touch, experience, or visualise have a greater impact on our attention. Clever, creative print defines this in people’s minds more powerfully than just reading alone.

Click here to see how well Lass Natural cosmetic's disintegrating coupon worked.

5. Reputation

Most ads avoid information overload. So what do you use when you want to let your customers know the details of your product? Print. Studies show that print is the best way to deliver complex information and creates the highest recall.

Click here to learn how one study showed how much less brain effort direct mail requires.

A study at Kingston University in the UK has found that reading can actually make you kinder.

Research student Rose Turner has completed a study into the effects of reading and watching television on social behaviour and has discovered that lovers of the printed word have the edge over their TV-watching counterparts.

They're nicer people.

Rose Turner, a PhD student at Kingston, conducted an anonymous online survey between people who prefer to watch television and those who prefer to read to determine the effects of reading over television viewing on social behaviour. The result? Readers have more empathy for other people’s feelings and are friendlier than the TV-watchers.

Her findings have resulted in more than this interesting outcome, after presenting her research to The British Psychological Society, Rose has found herself at the centre of global media attention, adding to the widespread interest in how much more effective the printed word is.

She explains this correlation between reading and emotional development as due to the character the printed word possesses to cause people to think for themselves rather than having all the information handed to them. This contributes to the development of the reader’s emotional intelligence, especially when reading stories and identifying with someone other than themselves.

We all love a good story. Think about creative ways you can tell yours in print.

Print appeals to a person’s intelligence in a way that screens can’t.

Rose’s PhD supervisor, Professor Frédéric Vallée-Tourangeau from the School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, sums it up by saying, "When the science of psychology helps ordinary people beyond the scientific community better understand their lives, the contributions are that much more important," he emphasised.

That’s Glide Print, out there helping society by giving them print to read!

We can help you engage with your customers in more effective ways. Pause before you hit the Send button on your next mass email and see how we can help tell your story better than everyone else.

What's your best guess about the marketing method Millennials are responding to the most? You'd be in the norm if you think it's anything online or email.

But the answer may surprise you: it's custom direct mail.

Millennials spend huge parts of their lives staring at a screen. But it's not following that the advertising they're seeing is appealing to them.

According to a recent study, the average results for UK SME email marketing campaigns across all industries were open rates of 22.87% and click-through rates of 3.26%, meaning that 77% of emails aren't even being opened.

On receiving a piece of direct mail, however, 66% of millennials are respondingto it. Direct mail has a greater perceived value and drives much higher results than email.

An email is easy to delete. We receive so many that we’ve become used to scanning them and only opening the ones that stand out as worthy of our time to open. Receiving physical mail, however, is something special. We’ll take the time to look at that.

In research that’s surprising many, it’s Millennials who are responding to direct mail the most. And not only are they responding, the percentage who then go on to make a purchase is also very high.

That’s giving you quite the head start in reaching a market who is saturated with digital content and is rapidly becoming immune to its marketing messages.

The most effective way to use direct mail is to integrate it to your online channels, using the direct mail piece to drive traffic to your website.

Canada Post’s Smartmail research has also found this to be true. You can check out their stats here and also watch a short video that explains how direct mail works to prompt your customers to action.

Glide Print are experts on direct mail. We’ve been in this business for a long time and can design an attention-grabbing campaign for you along with professional printing to suit your budget. Every job we do comes with our famous personal service, taking care of all the details so you can relax. We can even arrange the mail-out for you.